What the Qur'an does NOT teach

The Qur’an and Infidels

Contrary to what many people believe, including radical Muslims, the Qur’an does NOT preach that all infidels be killed.  

There are radical Muslims just as there are radical “Christians” and “Jews”. There are too many on all sides. We must remember that over the centuries Christianity was used as an excuse to commit terrible acts upon people. The Crusades were brutal against thousands of innocent people. The Spanish Inquisition, the Salem Witch Trials are other examples. The Bible was used to justify slavery in this country and the oppression of women (not granting the right to vote or, for a long time, the right to own property, or enter into contracts.)  The worst example in modern times was Hitler who used bits and pieces of the Bible to justify the killing of over 6 million people in the gas chambers and concentration camps. More recently we have the Westwood Baptist Church, in Kansas, whose leader and his followers use their interpretation of scripture to picket soldier’s funerals, and now tornado victims.

In the Old Testament you can find stories of what seems to be God’s commands to kill innocent men, women and children, and even all their animals. This in spite of the 10 commandments, one of which says we are not to kill. The Old Testament says if a child disobeys the parents, the parents have the right to kill the child. Or if a person eats pork they can be sentenced to death. If we simply pick and choose bits and pieces of the Bible we can seem to justify all kinds of horrible acts, and that is exactly what people have done, and in too many cases still do.

Some Muslims are like that too. They pick and choose bits and pieces, without any real knowledge of the whole of the Qur’an. Further, too many Muslims are easily misled and manipulated by clever and hateful people who want to justify their own agenda of evil. Notice that the terrorists are almost always uneducated, or at least undereducated, especially those sent to commit suicide. They have been fed lies about the Qur’an, and do not seek the truth for themselves.

There have been questions as to why people in prison often turn to Islam. People in prison too often seek an excuse for what has happened to them, someone to blame other than themselves. The result is they are gullible. That is too often true for people not in prison as well, whether Christian or Muslim. Too many people want revenge for what they think has been something bad done to them. The Qur’an does not preach revenge. Jesus said we are to love our enemies. Both teachings go against our human nature. Both teachings call us to be more humane, rather than merely human.

Understanding the Bible as a whole is the only way we can come to an understanding of what God has tried to get through to us. Reading the Gospels especially, focusing on the teachings and the actions of Jesus, is the most important of all. We must not just pick and choose verses to justify our own ideas, desires, and agendas. We are instead to learn, accept, and obey what Jesus taught us as a whole.

Again, the Qur’an does NOT preach that all infidels, or non believers, be killed.

The word “infidel” is of Latin origin and is not used by Muslims to describe those who do not share their faith. The Qur'an uses the word kafiroon (plural of kafir) to describe the people who hear the message of Islam but do not believe. The word itself means simply “those who reject.”

Muslims use the word kafir — which comes from the Arabic word for covering or hiding something (as in “covering one's heart”) — to refer to unbelievers. This word shares its root with the Arabic words for “atonement” and “penance,” implying that there is always hope that someone may later turn to God and become a believer. The doors are never closed.

The Qur'an does describe the punishment that those who reject faith will face in the hereafter. However, Muslims are never encouraged to randomly or systematically punish, wage war against, or kill people simply because they do not believe in the message of Islam. Such behavior would be the antithesis of the Qur'an’s injunction: “Let there be no compulsion in religion” (Qur'an 2:256).

A chapter of the Qur'an aptly titled Al-Kafiroon (Those Who Reject Faith) gives clear instructions to Muslims on how they should interact with those who do not believe: “Say: ‘Oh you who reject faith! I do not worship what you worship, and you will not worship what I worship. And I will never worship that which you worship, nor will you ever worship that which I worship. You have your faith, and I have mine’” (Qur'an 109:1–6). The Qur’an teaches if people cannot come to any agreement through respectful discussion, the best path is to simply part ways in peace rather than seek confrontation.

The Qur'an distinguishes between people who reject faith in God outright, and those who worship false idols and deities. The Qur'an describes those people who worship idols and other gods (rather than the One Almighty God) as mushrikoon, which literally means “those who perform shirk” or substitute other forms, idols, for God. In English, mushrikoon might be translated as “pagans” or “polytheists.”

At the time Muhammad was preaching in Mecca, the leaders and most of the people fell into this category. While they believed in the idea of One Almighty God, they fashioned idols of wood or clay and brought them food and drink in the hopes of intercession. Muhammad chastised them for worshiping objects that could do nothing to protect or help themselves, much less others. Angry at his words, the Meccans set out to torture, persecute, and attempt to destroy the Muslim community. They became the targets of Muslim violence.

There are a few verses of the Qur'an that encourage the Muslims to fight firmly against the mushrikoon, but they must be understood in the terms of the historical events surrounding the revelation of these verses just as we must understand parts of the Old Testament where God ordains or orders the killing of people. The Muslims were commanded to defend themselves against “those who fight you” (Qur'an 2:190). These verses refer specifically to those Meccan tribes and their allies and others who systematically tried in the time of Mohammad to destroy the Muslim community or suppress their rights to freedom of worship. In no case today may a Muslim initiate aggression against a people who are not hostile; in fact, the Qur'an encourages Muslims to “deal kindly and justly with them, for Allah loves those who are just” (Qur'an 60:8).

It is tragic that people do not learn more about what they proclaim to be their own religion, and instead allow themselves to be manipulated and attach themselves to people who play to their fears or prejudices.  This is true of Muslims and Jews and Christians alike. .As Christians we must always ask ourselves, what would Jesus do?  The answer is found directly in his teachings and actions in the Gospels as a whole, discomforting as the answers may be.